Job applications should not be so tedious

October 9, 2015

Having teenagers in my home, it was bound to happen that at least one would want to work at a job-to earn money for "stuff." Having no problem with that, I encouraged my 16-year-old to apply for jobs at local fast food and other similar places that tend to employ youth. How hard could it be to get a job at the local Dairy Queen or even Home Depot?

Well, weren't we in for a surprise when going in to several locations and constantly being told that we had to apply online. Okay, I get it-maybe--that everything it computerized nowadays. But, once on the sites of these companies who supposedly want someone to work for minimum wage (usually teens), we were faced with scores of pages of questions titled "assessments."

After spending over an hour answering 70+ questions that were repeated with a few word changes every 10 questions or so, we threw up our hands in frustration. Completing them, finally, we hit the send and then.....nothing. Weeks went by and there was not even an acknowledgment that an application was completed.

If these companies hope to help young people enter the workforce, they need to do away with these idiotic "assessment" questionnaires that are geared toward some desired response to situations that don't usually exist in real life. The answers are subjective depending on the situation, at least in most cases; however, the constant rephrasing of the same question leads one to believe there is some attempt to "trip someone up" and somehow show they are a bad person and unfit for work at the local fast food joint.

Let's return to the days of filling out a one or two-page job application in person and meeting with the local manager. So much more can be determined in that one face-to-face than in piles of computations of assessments online by someone hundreds of miles away. That way so many needing a job could get one and so many in need of employees would have them. Technology is not always the best answer and one's "gut feeling" on hiring is often correct and determined face to face.

By the way, we did find a great first job at a local eatery that does believe in the handwritten application and coming in to meet and chat. Took three days.....